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September 28, 1918: Don Martin reports Americans meeting stiff resistance in Argonne

         On Saturday, September 28, Don Martin visited the battle in the Argonne forest from the correspondent's base in Bar Le Duc. Don’s cable sent on September 28 to the New York Herald was published on Sunday, September 29.
OUR MEN SMASH AHEAD 
AGAINST A STIFF RESISTANCE
Don Martin Tells How U.S. Troops 
Sacrifice Speed To Conserve Lives
INCIDENTS SHOW PERIL OF OPERATIONS
Thirty Guns Captured By Indian Tactics 
Reinforced By Sniping With Rifle Fire
By DON MARTIN
Special Correspondent of the Herald with the American Armies in France
(Special Cable to the Herald)
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE, Saturday
                       In the fighting raging now in the region of historic Verdun and west through Champagne the Americans are running against some of the vicious machine gun resistance such as marked the advance over that part of the country that lies north of the Marne. It seems the Germans depend largely on the deadly machine guns, so the boys with the aid of the skill and caution they learned in former conflicts are sacrificing speed to conservation of lives. The result is they are making a splendid job at a minimum of losses.
                       One picturesque encounter occurred in the Argonne forest – an enormous stretch of heavy timber land similar to the Adirondacks. The Germans had honeycombed all the forest and decided to take a heavy toll in any attack on them.
                       To-day I watched the operations and, while I was a distance away, I was able to see plainly the Americans along the edge of the forest, and, west and east, the Germans’ guns singing a constant rhapsody of death and bullets pelting everywhere. The operation was slow and dangerous, but it was possible between spurts in the song of death to dart behind a tree or some other object which was large enough to protect the body. I could see the boys enter the woods and learned afterwards the methods they had employed. They captured more than thirty machine guns by sneaking up where they could get the range of the operators and then sniping them with rifle fire. Some of the best shots in the army were employed in this man hunt. In this spectacular manner the boys cleared more than two miles of forest and are still progressing as I write.
                       In the early days of the war men in a similar position probably would have plunged pell-mell into the forest, dashing madly on till a few reached the machine gun crews. Now the same result is being achieved by a new and safer method.
Taking A Gun Pit
                         At one point, a thousand feet inside the forest, the Germans had built a concrete pit and called it St. Louis. It was a particularly dangerous place. But after all of four hours of careful maneuvering the Americans crawled up, then bounded to the entrance of the pit. They killed the gunners hiding in it and then trained their weapons on another group of Germans in a nearby pit, who became alarmed at the close approach of the Americans.
                       The Germans, with fiendish shrewdness, already have changed the open warfare which the new Verdun battle promised to be into more trench war, for they have had their lines pounded back nearly to their last organized defence system – that known as the Kriemhilde line. Here and at points well back of it they expect to make a firm stand. This I say in the face of reports that they intend to begin a slow withdrawal. I mention this as the newest form of the Hun propaganda. Any withdrawal is likely to be slow, however, because of the enormous preparations which the Huns have been making to slaughter the forces which would try to penetrate their line. They were confident they would be able to inflict appalling losses, but allied officers to whom I have talked say the worried boche threats were wrongly based. We have an artillery answer for any defences the enemy can erect, judging by what I have seen of the destructiveness of our artillery fire. And this is not an extravagant statement.
                       Allied officers declare the fighting was really brilliant on Thursday. The Americans awoke from their damp, clammy holes in which they had been getting some rest, well wrapped in blankets, for hours. All over the landscape the rainfall had transformed the fields and roads into mud.
The Men All Cheerful
                       I called on one regiment which already had been in a battle and was ready to repeat. They had had their baptisms of fire and I asked them what they thought of the situation. I was amazed at their cheerfulness. All hands recognized the well known spot on the Meuse River where their work was being done under the range of German guns, which began dropping shells on them long before their job was finished. Many of the shells struck close to them, but not a man was killed. The next day I talked to a lieutenant who was supervising their work. He was still there finishing up the details. He is a splendid looking chap about twenty-eight, whose home is in Philadelphia. I asked him his name so I could tell something of the part he is playing in the advance. He said: “I’ll build a bridge, if I can, or take a drink. or eat bully beef, but no publicity, please. Excuse me! I’m a fighter, not an advertiser.” He meant it too.
                       On Friday afternoon a private of twenty-one walked down into Aboucourt with three Boche prisoners. He was covered with blood, but he was happy. This is the story he told: “I, with three others of the boys, went after a machine gun out here back a ways. The Huns were hiding in a hay pile. We crawled up on our bellies, but the Huns got the other three. They were wounded. I jumped around the pile, grabbed the man at the gun by the throat and told the others to surrender. I got credit, too, for taking them.”
                       An officer who was making the records asked the boy if he was hurt. The latter answered: “A bullet hit me on the forehead and a piece of shrapnel struck me half an hour before.”
An Unnamed Hero
                       The officer took the lad to the dressing room, where it was found his shoulder and helmet had been pierced by a bullet which circled around his forehead, grazing his skull. It is unfortunate I cannot tell the name of this hero, but the censorship says we cannot use the name of injured until notification of their families through the government.
                       That the Germans are disturbed by the recent developments is evident in the demeanor of the prisoners. I saw a thousand of these fellows in a wire cage which Americans had constructed. Among them were thirty of the Prussian Guards division. They are supposed to be the finest of all the German troops. I asked them to explain their surrender, but they just shook their heads and said nothing. From their appearance, and all were taken in this operation, some of the very best of the German divisions are in the fight in the Verdun region, among them the Prussian Guards, the Bavarian Reserve and several other division which heretofore have been used to check an advance at such critical pints as Bellau Woods, Soissons, Laon and St. Quentin.
Thorough Test Of Army
                       In the present operations, as at St. Mihiel, the American army is being tested in many things beside the grit and valor of the doughboy, which has been proved a thousand times over. One of the hardest things an army has to do is ensure its supplies for guns and men, and particularly food, being close in the wake of a huge force, the debris from ruined villages and rebuilt roads and bridges, etc. The French are masters of military transportation. The Americans, while new, are yet masters, too, although maybe in different directions.
                        On muddy roads when a slip of a wheel means delay and all possible danger to the boys at the front there are many. every night just preceding and following the beginning of the present operations when they were reaching one of the most interesting stages this action might have been seen – fifty miles of American motor trucks, the wagons moving without a hitch, the only sound rising above the steady rumble of motors being a typical American oath directed at a mean mule, of which many hundreds were tethered around the tented areas where Americans were sleeping, waiting the call for reinforcements. French intermingled with them and officers were everywhere gently offering advice.
                       As I write I hear new details of the capture of Montfaucon. This good-sized town, which the Germans were so eager to hold, the Americans entered as their first objective. German snipers in the houses at the edge of the town, sprayed the whole region with machine guns, but the Americans stuck to their positions sniping, too, when the chance afforded. When the Americans were in possession of the town, with the Huns all in hiding, the Americans withdrew, hid in the fringe of the town and an order was sent to the artillery to drop some shells on it. Such Germans as were there fled and when the barrage was finished the Americans entered.
        The Paris Herald published a map of the battle area on September 28.
         Don Martin sent an upbeat report on the American air war, published in the New York Herald on Sunday, September 29.        
AMERICAN FLYERS VIRTUALLY 
CLEAR GERMANS FROM SKY
Remarkable Work During General Pershing’s 
Offensive Shows
What Will Happen When Machines 
Reach Front in Large Numbers
By DON MARTIN
Special Correspondent of the Herald with the American Armies in France
[Special Cable to the Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE, Saturday
                        By keeping the sky virtually clear of the enemy in the first days of the Verdun offensive the American fliers demonstrated what they could do if they had many times the present number of airplanes. The Germans were unable in the early hours of the action, also in the days preceding it, to ascertain what was happening on our side. This was vital to the success of the operation.
                        During Thursday and Friday I was close to the line and constantly saw hundreds of American airplanes, but not more than a dozen Boche ones.
                         On the first day of the drive American fliers acting as patrols brought down several airplanes but lost none. Then a squad of bombing machines, made in America and equipped with Liberty motors, made an almost theatrical trip over Conflans. They were accompanied by six fighting machines. The bombers proceeded calmly with their job while the fighting machines engaged twelve Boche machines, bringing down four and losing one. The bombers did a successful operation, wrecking the railway tracks which had been newly constructed.
                        The bombing machines returned for a supply of bombs and made another trip. Four lieutenants sent up in single seat machines to make observations were attacked by a dozen Boche airplanes. One of the Americans rose almost perpendicularly, disappearing in a cloud. Another dropped, recovering his flying position within a hundred and fifty feet of the roofs of the houses of Conflans and escaped. Two of our machines are missing, but it is thought they are safe.
                        An officer who was about to return to America as an instructor, eager for the experience, accompanied the fighting squadron. He disappeared and was not seen for hours but returned at last without his machine.
                         “I brought down three machines,” he said. “At least I am sure of one, because it was mine.”
         For Paris,Don Martin sent his daily dispatch from the front, with both positive and negative reports on how it was going. It was published in the Paris Herald on Sunday, September 29, 1918. 
SHARPSHOOTERS PICK OFF 
THE HUN GUNNERS
American Marksmen, Adopting Old Indian Fighting Tactics, Skilfully Silence Troublesome Groups
Of The Enemy Hidden In Argonne Forest
(Special Telegram to the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Saturday
              The Germans are stiffening their resistance all along the line facing the Americans. It is evident that they intend to take as heavy toll as possible before taking up their position on what is known as the Brunehilde line, which runs roughly from Teutoil to Pirmet, down to the heights north of Meuron, then north to Grandpré and Champigneulle, to the north of Somme Ranne, to the south of Bantheville to the Meuse. Here they have particularly strong fortifications and believe, apparently, that if they are forced to withdraw that far they will be able to hold on indefinitely.
              At various small points along the line the enemy made feeble attempts to counter-attack, but in each instance was repulsed without great effort. The enemy was in force along the edge of the Bois de Cierges, also the Bois Mont. He made artillery preparation at these points, also between Epinonville and Ivoiry. On Friday afternoon he made a mild attack here, but our infantry broke up the attack and drove back the enemy several hundred yards behind his starting point.
Machine-Guns in Churches
              In all the villages in this entire section the Germans have machine-guns hidden in churches, houses and other spots. They make particular use of haystacks, many of which are in our back areas. It is evident that they have big gun positions back of the Brunehilde line.
              On the other hand, the Americans kept up a bombardment of the German back areas, also their forward line, all night. This forenoon attacks were made at many points. Our men advanced and scored, despite savage resistance. The number of prisoners is increasing.
              Montfaucon is a mass of ruins and looks like the towns in the Saint-Mihiel region. The tottering walls had been badly shattered before the present engagement started. The ruin was completed by the bombardment of the Allied artillery. The Germans made a desperate stand. The town sits partly on a height and is a natural stronghold. The Huns had machine-guns placed on towers, in the windows of attics, and in every place of vantage in the town. They were able to hold off the Americans till the artillery began a steady play, when they were forced to withdraw. It was impossible to visit the town yesterday, when many correspondents sought to do so, as the Germans in the neighboring region commanded it with machine-guns and swept the exposed places constantly. I could see the wreck in the town, which stands lacelike against the horizon.
Tanks’ Good Work
              Varennes, which I was able to visit, is also a complete ruin. The Germans had apparently sought to make it an impregnable fortress, erecting barricades, stones, boxes, logs, etc. but when the tanks, numbering twoscore, rocked their cumbersome, merciless way into the town, the barricades and other obstacles crumbled. After the infantry arrived the Germans withdrew to the north, where they made a stand from time to time, evidently to permit a large force to get away.
              The Americans engaged in stiff fighting in the Forest of Argonne, where the Germans set machine-guns behind trees and in the small growths. The whole operation is progressing satisfactorily. The Germans are constantly strengthening their forces in the rear. Our boys are encouraged by the successes of the French and British, also by the report, which all heard yesterday, that Bulgaria suggests a move in the direction of peace.
Later. 
              Alarmed by the vigor of the American attack the Germans last night began throwing in new divisions. It became very apparent to-day that the Germans are working feverishly to get the Brunehilde line in readiness. Our aviators report that large forces of men are at work there. In the meantime the enemy forces in the line have orders to hold as long as possible.
              The Germans during the night established new machine-gun positions in Argonne. The Americans, resorting to the old Indian style of fighting, are mastering them. Men with reputations for markmanship are assigned to the task of weeding out the most dangerous nests, which are concealed with cunning by the Germans. The Americans crawl and dart from tree to tree, getting positions whence they are able to snipe the German gunners. In this way they have greatly reduced the effectiveness of the German resistance.
              One American unit last night captured 50 machine-guns, 105 howitzers, with an abundance of ammunition, which is now being used against the Germans; 120 automatic rifles, 40 of the new German tank guns, with ammunition; an engineer dump, two large ammunition dumps and much other material, showing that the Germans were forced to get out of some regions in great haste.
       Don Martin also sent to Paris an unusual American war story, published in the Paris Herald on Sunday, September 29, 1918. 
INFANTRYMEN ON HIKE 
BRING DOWN BOCHE AIRPLANE
Hundred Bullet-Holes Found in Machine
Which Had Fired on Civilian Population
(Special Telegram to the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Saturday
                       American infantrymen, exercising excellent marksmanship, recently brought down a German aviator near Saint-Dié. The German flew over the town and encircled the hôtel de ville at an altitude of not more than 150 feet. The purpose of the visit was not apparent. After frightening the inhabitants, he flew away, returning again at a low altitude. Two American military policemen fired with their revolvers, and the German, in retaliation, turned his machine-gun on them, injuring a civilian.
                       With his machine-gun sputtering, he flew away on a slow climb. A company of American infantrymen were on the road outside of the town on a hike. The commander recognized the plane as a Boche and gave orders to the entire company to fire. All aimed with care and fired together; the plane came down instantly in flames. Enough of it was left to reveal more than a hundred bullet-holes. The aviator was dead.

                       On Friday Lieutenant Hoover brought down a monoplane machine near Sévry. Lieutenant White attacked two Fokkers and brought down one near Montfaucon. Lieutenants Buckley, Butt and Woodward brought down another Rumpler. There was little air activity on Friday because of the bad weather. In the afternoon the sky cleared, and the Germans sought to take photos, also to try out the mettle of the Americans, who appeared in full force, maintaining complete mastery, the same as on Thursday. To-day opened damp and cloudy, with little activity early in the day.

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